Chapter 76: Tournament Day 3 (Part 3)

[Dammit dammit dammit! Everything I find is useless! Fuck!] - Gil

[Is the Honorable Master still searching for information on Avatar's? This one was sure that one of Honorable Master's skill level would have found such information if it existed by now, perhaps it is hidden away?] - Kurata

[Hidden away...? Hidden away? Huh.... THAT THRICE DAMNED BITCH!!!] - Gil

Kurata was shocked, his new master had completely combed this thing called a library within only a few days, completely reading through what looked like countless books in such time. In fact the amount of books his Honorable Master had read in this timespan was several times more than he had ever seen in his lifetime before entering this haven of learning to ask the Honorable Master to train him. At first Honorable Master had him train in the basics, testing his skill level obviously, but after about 2 days of swings he'd been summoned before his Master. Shameful at the anticipation clear on his face1At least in his opinion, Kurata's face is almost completely expressionless from everyone else's perspective he'd been shocked into silence when, instead of imparting some new training method upon him, he'd been tasked with reading through a stack of books given to him by the Honorable Master. His Master, for his part, looked smug at his choices despite looking harried from his own research.

After that the day had gone blindingly fast as he'd worked his way through the first of the books given to him, finding that it was surprisingly useful, dealing with movements and methods for increasing the efficiency of them in a combat or athletic setting. He was quite impressed from the stances and descriptions that felt quite profound to him despite his lack of knowledge of the "health science's" as the author described them. He of course had no idea that the author was a reincarnator that had previously been a scientist with a focus on mechanical motion within biological systems, or more specifically, a sports health scientist. And even if he did he would never have understood such a statement to begin with, his own culture heavily emphasized family and honor bonds and as such reincarnator's within his homeland were hidden away within the family never to be spoken of except in hushed tones, and only then by shameless gossips and cowardly soothsayers.

It was during his reading of this enlightened book that he was startled out of his focus by the Honorable Master's cry of exasperation. He never truly understood the need for profanity in these situations but his position made it improper to correct such behavior, even criticizing such things was never to be done, even in private. Of course he understood his Master's urgency, he'd impressed upon him the absolutely dire situation his Senior Sister Rose was in.

Taken in as a disciple before him Senior Sister Rose obviously had greater standing than he did so the fact that Honorable Master was focusing his efforts on her was only proper. Unfortunately however, Honorable Master had been completely unable to resolve Senior Sister's predicament despite nearly tearing apart this "library". So he made the suggestion that the book his Master was searching for may be hidden somewhere rather than out in the open. He obviously didn't know what book would hold such knowledge but his limited understanding impressed upon him that the topic his Master was searching for was quite important and generally important things were hidden right? Well regardless of how valid my claim was the Honorable Master's face immediately became dark as he once more yelled profanity, this time invoking the God's, before racing out of the room.

Staring at where my Master had left for a moment more I turned back to my book to finish it, I was quite enjoying this reading this afterall. Not that I'd admit it.

[Well this has been an interesting Tournament, don't you think Tully?] - Alice

Aegis Company was on standby, their group hadn't been needed as often in this Tournament as in previous years despite the higher overall power level of the combatant's in this Tournament. Perhaps it had something to do with their skill level or maybe they just hadn't gotten to the really dangerous stuff yet but either way they'd been mostly unneeded. Although that being said the death of one of the fighters the day before had been a tense moment for them as even they would have had difficulties stopping such a specialized piercing attack. Only Iron, with his heavy Plate Armor Shield, would have stood even a fraction of a chance of deflecting such a blow. And unfortunately he'd been absent during that round, sent to deal with one of their other responsibilities.

Of course they couldn't be blamed at this late stage for a death, as long as it wasn't a common occurrence it was treated as accidental rather than intentional. In the Preliminaries it'd been different however since the level of power of those participating was considered low enough that a death was most likely intentional. Of course none of the contestants measured up to their own level, they were experienced adventurers afterall. Even that Edgar fellow would be unable to hurt them in any meaningful way and he was by far the most promising of the group so far. For instance, that Lance attack that had led to the first death of this year's Tournament, if they'd been facing the user of that on the field of battle they have never gone up against the move directly, it was relatively easy to dodge such a straightforward attack afterall. Straight line's never fare well on the battlefield.

Thinking of all this and more the resident mage of the Aegis Company spoke up about her thoughts on the Tournament, her mind reviewing each of the competitor's left standing.

[I guess. Last year's was... easier to predict. Too many dark horses this year, it's abnormal. What about you Marth?] - Tully

[I agree with Alice, it's always boring to see those Noble bastards win year after year, makes it obvious they're rigging them ya know.] - Marth

[I get ya I get ya, oh by the way have you seen Lucem recently? She went out to bother those VIP brats yesterday and I didn't see her afterwards.] - Tully

[That was 2 days ago moron!] - Alice

[Oh?!? Right right, I forgot. Ya think... she's in trouble or something?] - Tully

Tully was right of course, this Tournament had been just abnormal the contestants truly strange for the most part. Which made what Marth said next hit the problem right in the bullseye with the problem being obvious from their perspective. This Tournament was heavily rigged to block the truly powerful from winning in favor of Noble's and the Retainer's of Noble's winning.

Of course this brought up the subject of their illustrious leader, being a minor noble daughter herself she'd apparently ran away from home to escape an arranged marriage and still ended up inheriting her family's title in spite of her betraying her parent's expectations. They were now both apparently retired and Lucem just had a trusted family advisor run the actual day to day operations of her family estate. Luckily her Kingdom was fairly nonchalant about the whole thing, as long as their taxes continued to come in they didn't care whether the resident Noble actually stayed in their territory or not. Although that mostly came as a result of that country's insistence on scientific advancement  above all else, it kind of ignored everything other than that for the most part.

But as for the individual herself? She was lazy, incredibly, extremely lazy. Sure she'd been gone for a few days but such things weren't exactly uncommon for her so Alice figured she was just mooching off some poor lolicon VIP somewhere. A moment later one of her other party member's agreed with her assessment.

[Nah, don't worry about her. You know how she is with work, she's probably just slacking off somewhere bumming snacks off of some VIP. She'll get bored before long and show back up.] - Marth

[I guess you're right but I can't help thinking something feels off th- Oh Iron there you are! Did you finish inspecting the Arena?] - Tully

[...] - Iron?

[Oh yeah, well keep up the hard work!] - Tully

[Hahaha! Maybe you should take a page form Iron's work habits Tully, he's the star of our team afterall!] - Marth

[Yeah maybe you'll stop slacking off if we put ya under Iron instead Mr. Vice Team Leader! Hahahaha!] - Alice

[Ohhhh?!? Now you've done it! Come here you two!] - Tully

[...] - Iron?

Tully, still mulling over the bad feeling he was getting, was just about to bring up a proposal to go and search for their wayward leader only to brighten up when one of his favorite people appeared. Iron, their mute warrior, was quite the friendly guy despite his handicap and they got along with him quite closely. Which is why they had decided to pool together their earnings a few years back to get him an artificial voicebox so he could finally talk with them, unfortunately however they were only able to afford the less expensive model that had the be constantly fed mana to actually work which meant he could only speak when Alice actually supplied it with power.

Feeling rowdy, the group began chasing each other, not noticing the subtle aura of dread emanating off their silent companion.

[Are you sure you should be sneaking out? Won't that nurse get angry with you?] - Edgar

[As if I would care what a les- ....human woman thinks. Besides you're in the same situation, you'll be yelled at just as much as me!] - Aerin

Aerin was irritated, she'd been fussed over and prodded by those damn humans since she collapsed, their "worry" making them keep her under observation nearly constantly. She didn't know what they planned on getting from her for their "help" but whatever it was she was tired of their ministrations. However, even she could tell that something was different. Sure she still distrusted humans for the most part but despite  her ignoring the change of opinion she had softened her impression considerably, her protective pride shattered from her battle with that damn grinning monkey next to her. His smug face as he reminded her of that demon woman that was watching the two of them made her want to slug him in his handsome face! Well whatever no point in lashing out at morons.

[Yeah yeah, well what are you even after anyways. You look like a woman on a mission.] - Edgar

<....I'm not sure. Idiot...> - Aerin

[Hah? Did you say something?] - Edgar

[I said that it's none of your business human! Now let me get some peace and quiet for once!] - Aerin

[Don't lie you like the company otherwise you would have already shaken me off and gone off on your own.] - Edgar

[D-Don't be so full of yourself Idiot! I just... Right! I just don't want to waste my energy driving you off! Hmph!] - Aerin

[Hmmm...? Well if you say so. Heh...] - Edgar

Asking about her mission that damn smug monkey smiled his ridiculous, attractive, smile at her. He was so young and... Ah! What was she thinking?!? R-Regardless she couldn't tell him of what she was looking for so she decided to shut down that conversation right then and there only for an even bigger smirk to spread on his face. She was going to have a hard time dealing with this human she knew it.

[Hmm...? So black swords which seemed to weaken you when they hit that could cause damage to a slime sever enough for them to die?] - Annabelle

[Do you have any idea's?] - Malaise

After describing the weapons to my maid, Annabelle closed her eyes as if to think about what they could possibly be, I could see her visibly straining as if it were a difficult problem. Not that I understood why it would be of course.

[Honestly? I'm not sure. Causing damage to a slime is something just about all enchanted weapons can do so on it's own it's not too strange.] - Annabelle

[Damn, I was hoping you'd noticed something we missed!] - Rose

[Well hold on Young Miss, while I did say that was a particularly strange part the other two aspects are a bit more uncommon. Black Metal is fairly uncommon, although it does exist so there's a possibility of it being chosen for no particular reason. What's more concerning however is that weakening aspect you told me about. If it was just you guys I'd have taken it for a life drain or fatigue enchantment. Easy enough to do on the weaker end but very useful for dealing with most monsters. What strikes me as odd however is the effect it had on your slime friend Young Miss.] - Annabelle

[Huh? Why would that be any weirder than anyone else? Oh and her name is Karen by the way.] - Rose

[I apologize Young Miss, I will endeavor to refer to Miss Karen by name from now on. As for why that's strange-] - Annabelle

Listening to Annabelle's explanation about the possibilities for what the weapons could have been I briefly felt a flash of irritation at her not using Karen's name. By this point I was aware of her antisocial behavior but while I loved Annabelle like a sister/mother figure I couldn't stand her not treating Karen at least as an equal. Luckily my maid took my comment in stride and immediately apologized so I decided to not hold it against her at the very least. Although immediately after that she was interrupted by an excited foxgirl making my little flash of anger completely lose it's flame. Annabelle looked both relieved and annoyed at the interruption.

[It's because of how slime's are formed right?] - Malaise

[Huh?] - Rose

[That's correct Miss Malaise, the problem with a life drain enchantment is what it actually focuses on. You see most lifeforms have something similar to an electric current animating their body. Reincarnator's said it was something called the Midokondrea or something like that. What the life drain enchantment does is drain that current causing the body to shut down.] - Annabelle

[It's called Mitochondria, but why would that matter anyway?] - Karen

[Simply put Slime's aren't maintained by this Mitochondria as you call it. Near as we can tell they're directly using mana to support life functions] - Annabelle

[Wait really?!? But all life should have Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell!] - Karen

[Seriously Karen?!? She's revealing that you're now completely different from all other forms of life and you spout of an old meme from our childhood?!?] - Rose

[Oh come on Austin Sauce! It was funny!] - Karen

Rolling my eyes at Karen's pose as she used a deep voice to mimic that old meme I had to suppress a laugh at her smug face. She knew she got me with that one.

Although it was seriously surprising though. In my old world we'd learned that basically all animal cells used mitochondria so hearing that slime's didn't have anything like that was... actually why did this world have such a similar evolution? Now that I thought of it it seemed strange and-

Interrupting my spiraling thoughts that I swore I'd come back to later Annabelle finally dropped her thought on the culprit of our strange weapons.

[Okay? I'm not sure what Miss Karen said but I believe that those weapons you consumed are Mana Eaters.] - Annabelle

[Wait seriously?!? Those were Mage's Bane? Do you even know how expensive those are?!?] - Veronica

[I think she's aware Ver, for the record I agree with her assessment. Although what that actually means for Karen after she ate them...] - Malaise

[I apologize for my lack of knowledge around that point, honestly as far as I know it should have been impossible for a mana creature like a slime to even touch Mana Eater weapons, let alone absorb almost a dozen of them into itself. I can't even guess what that means for Miss Karen.] - Annabelle

[...copied magic?] - Shade

[Right! What Shade says! Didn't you somehow copy that giant flower thing?!? What was that about?] - Rose

[Honestly? I'm not sure, it suddenly felt like I'd "finished" something and I was suddenly able to pull it out as if it was normal. I don't know why.] - Karen

[Didn't you infect that Dryad lady and her flower thing or something like that? Maybe it's connected?] - Veronica

[I don't see why that wou-] - Karen

[No I think she's right! If, and this is a big if, your ability is actually connected to what you consume wouldn't that make a little more sense as to why you could suddenly use someone else's ability?] - Malaise

[So what? I eat magic now or some shit?] - Karen

[Yes exactly.] - Malaise

[Well that'd make sense- Wait really?!?] - Karen

[Oh! Oh! We should test it while we ca-] - Rose

[Will the next competitors make their way to the prepatory room! Contestants Lady Rose de la Amchier and CuCuthain "Divine Lance" make your way to the prepatory room!] - Judico

[W-Well I guess we can check it later?] - Rose

[Yeah! Knock em dead!] - Karen

[Good Luck!] - Malaise

[Don't you dare lose!] - Veronica

[...win.] - Shade

[I believe in you Young Miss.] - Annabelle

[I'm going... See you soon.] - Rose

Gradually getting more excited as the weapons were explained more I realized the implications of what they were saying, granted it took several people pointing it out but... Anyway it meant that "my" Karen was like the literal enemy of mages now! Awesome! Excited to immediately try out her new ability I nearly clicked my tongue in annoyance as we were interrupted by the call from the Announcer for my fight to start. I'd been THIS close! Saying my farewell's to my group of friends I turned towards my next fight and the future that was beyond him. That damn Prince would pay for everything he's done, and I had only one obstacle left between us.